Elon Musk has issued a scathing criticism of Donald Trump’s key tax initiative, saying it “undermines” his team’s efforts to streamline government spending. He writes about it informs Financial Times.
The CEO of Tesla, who until recently headed the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), expressed his disappointment over the passage of the massive government spending bill. According to him, the document increases the budget deficit and “undermines the work done by the DOGE team.”
Last week, the US House of Representatives approved the bill by a narrow one-vote margin, marking the first major legislative achievement of Trump’s second term. The document is currently under consideration in the Senate.
The US president, who convinced a number of Republicans to support the initiative, called it “probably the most important law that will ever be signed in the history of our country” and dubbed the document “The Big, Beautiful Law.”
However, despite some reductions in social spending, the draft law caused a wave of criticism among supporters of a tough fiscal policy. According to estimates by independent experts, the implementation of this initiative could increase the US national debt by more than 3.3 trillion dollars over the next decade.
Musk, who has repeatedly warned that the US may be on the verge of default without reducing the deficit, commented on the situation as follows:
“In my opinion, the law can be either great or beautiful. But I am not sure that it can be both at the same time. This is my personal opinion.”
The comment was Musk’s sharpest criticism of the Trump administration to date. He has previously expressed his displeasure with the White House’s trade policy, calling trade adviser Peter Navarro an “idiot” and “dumb than a bag of bricks” and saying the tariff cuts are “generally a good idea.”
Also, Musk repeatedly clashed with individual government officials due to staff reductions implemented by the DOGE team in the relevant departments.
